unaguerrasinfondo:

Doña Lolita, as she is singularly known in Puerto Rico—no last name necessary—became a nationalist hero in 1954 when she organized an assault on the U.S. Congress with her comrades Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andres Figueroa Cordero. On March 1, 1954, Lolita and her three comrades calmly entered the Capitol, walked through the lobby and up to the visitor’s gallery above the chamber in the House of Representatives, which was in session. Shortly thereafter, Lolita gave the order, the Nationalists unfurled the Puerto Rican flag, Lolita stood up and shouted “Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!” and within seconds they opened fire on the U.S. Congress. Five congressmen were wounded in the attack. All four Nationalists were immediately arrested. Soon after the attack, the mass media launched a campaign to demonize the Puerto Rican independence movement. But Lolita was not intimidated: “I am not sorry! I am not sorry to come and demand freedom for my country in any place.” As she had written on a note in her purse the day of the attack: “My life I give for the freedom of my country. This is a cry for victory in our struggle for independence… . The United States of America is betraying the sacred principles of mankind in their continuous subjugation of my country.” The four were soon convicted and given life sentences. During the social upsurge of the 1960s and 1970s in Puerto Rico and the United States, more and more people raised the demand for the immediate release of the four as political prisoners and combatants in a just war of self-determination. An international campaign arose, which gained steam with the diplomatic and political support of revolutionary Cuba. The pressure paid off in 1979, when President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to Lolita Lebron, and the other nationalists, after spending 24 years in prison.

(photo: the arrest of Dolores Lebrón Sotomayor, March 1, 1954)

(text quoted from PSLweb.org, authored by Monica Ruiz and Javier Lavoe.)

(Source: biencafre)